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Story URL: http://management.silicon.com/itdirector/0,39024673,39125952,00.htm

Leader: Nice to hear some IT success stories
It's not all doom and gloom...

By silicon.com

Published: Tuesday 16 November 2004

Considering the ample press given to IT cock-ups - the recent multi-million-pound mess at Sainsbury's comes to mind - it's easy to think such projects are without benefit.

One starts to believe IT systems are only expensive, hard to implement and unreliable - and that they will never live up to the biggest promise of all, that they'll make your business efficient and save or make you money.

So it's nice to hear the situation's not so pessimistic - that some organisations are getting IT right and reaping the rewards. And it's especially nice to hear it in regards to one of the more complex and costly types of projects - the supply chain.

The good news today comes from analyst house AMR Research.

Instead of chiding firms for failing it named 25 companies that are doing the best job at taking advantage of supply chain practices and technologies.

The list included all business sectors, though an IT vendor - Dell - won it. Nokia and IBM made the top five as well.

AMR made a big deal in its research report about promoting the advantages of efficient and modern supply chains. "They can save the manufacturing industry hundreds of billions of dollars," the analyst house said.

But such claims about the cost savings of IT are commonplace. What interested this publication were the company-level facts. IBM, for instance, has saved $12bn in two years as a result of linking up disparate pieces of its supply chain, according to AMR.

Now that's a classic example of an IT success story if we've ever heard one.

Isn't it nice to hear one?